

The spat started over sharing of waters of the Chitravathi river which incidentally yields less than two TMC ft water during the monsoons. The scheme for drinking water was drawn up since the Kolar region was plagued by high fluoride content. "We have informed the Union government as well as Mr Naidu that the project is only to store drinking water and not for irrigation," says Karnataka chief secretary B.S. Patil, treading carefully. A possible fallout now: a tussle for the "excess" water of the Krishna river.